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GoKwik: COD Is 90% of Undelivered Festive Order Value; Tier 3 Towns Account for 43% of Orders
Our read
COD will remain about half of festive orders, but brands will shift to prepaid nudges and multi-item baskets to cut the roughly 90% of undelivered value it drives.
For operators
GoKwik's 18 crore festive orders show COD, about half of orders, was nearly 90% of undelivered value, so operators planning Festive 2026 should test steering COD buyers to 3-4 item baskets, which had about 25% lower RTO.
Watch
COD share of undelivered order value below the ~90% reported, in GoKwik's Festive 2026 analysis, would mean COD-curbing tools are cutting RTO losses for brands and couriers.
The report,
GoKwik's analysis of 18 crore festive orders placed between 22 September and 5 November 2025 found COD made up nearly 90 per cent of undelivered shipment value despite about half of orders. Tier 3 locations contributed 43 per cent of orders.
- COD share of total orders
- about half
- COD share of undelivered shipment value
- 90 per cent
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Channel facts
From the report. Source details below
| COD share of total orders: | about half |
|---|---|
| RTO rate reduction, 3-4 item COD orders vs single-item: | about 25 per cent |
| Top 10% shoppers' share of category GMV: | between 38 per cent and 55 per cent |
| Brands served by GoKwik: | more than 20,000 |
| Online shoppers served by GoKwik: | 220 million |
What it means for online and offline
GoKwik's analysis of 18 crore orders shows COD, about half of orders, was nearly 90% of undelivered shipment value, so COD-focused RTO-reduction tooling is where the undelivered value sits when screening e-commerce enablement targets.
Signals to track
- Tier 3 share of orders versus the 43% reported in the next GoKwik festive data
- RTO gap between 3-4 item and single-item COD orders versus the ~25% reported
- COD fees or pincode-level COD limits announced by major marketplaces or D2C brands
- Rival RTO or COD datasets from other checkout or logistics providers
Likely next moves
Our read of what comes next — analysis, not reported by the source.
- GoKwik is likely to promote COD-risk scoring, prepaid conversion and address-verification tools to merchants, citing this dataset as proof of where RTO losses sit.
- D2C brands are likely to nudge multi-item baskets on COD orders, using bundles and cart thresholds, because 3-4 item orders showed about 25% lower RTO than single-item orders.
- Expect rival checkout and logistics firms such as Shiprocket to publish their own festive RTO and COD datasets to contest GoKwik's framing.
- Couriers and marketplaces may tighten COD acceptance or add handling fees in higher-RTO pincodes, mainly in Tier 3 and smaller towns.
- GoKwik is likely to release a post-season readout on Festive 2026 that compares COD and RTO behaviour with this 18 crore-order base.
The source
Published
First seen